Hoi An & My Son

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Originally uploaded by theslaad.

So the sun does actually shine in this part of Vietnam after all! The rain cleared up mostly after lunch yesterday but stayed pretty cloudy & menacing for the rest of the day. We ventured back to the local market to see if we could pick up a set of chinese chess pieces. Everywhere we've been we have seen men on the street playing it and it lokoed like a good 2 player game. We'd seen 1 set in a shop for $7 but thought we might get some cheaper. We browsed the stalls to the calls of "you look", "you buy something", and asked one lady if she had them. She didn't but said to wait one minute. At this point she sent an older lady running off to god knows where to pick up a set. We waited around for about 5 minutes and were just leaving when she came puffing back with 2 sets. Needless to say she was rather pissed off when we told her we didn't like them as much as the ones we already seen. She chased us up the road a bit lowering her price but didn't understand that we simply didn't want them. It's like that in most shops, they think that you should buy something and will lower their price, but don't understand that you actually have to like or need something to buy it, not just buy it because it's cheap!
We bought a nice small wooden set and then went for a drink in a bar that gives it's profits to the 'Blue Dragon Foundation' - an Australian charity who help street kids in Vietnam.

Today we have visited My Son (pronounced mee sun). It's a ruined set of very old Champa temples similar in style to Angkor. Unfortunately the Americans bombed the hell out of the site during the war so there are hardly any of the structures remaining. They looked good in the sunshine though.
We had a bit more of a look around town in the sunshine this afternoon, you could certainly tell it had been raining though with the river flooding over onto the main path!
We catch another bus in the morning, this time we're going to Hue.

Hoi An & Internet censorship

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Originally uploaded by theslaad.

We caught the overnight train to Danang from Nha Trang successfully, even though there were no signs at the station at either end! We knew it should be arriving at 05:23 so made sure that we were up and ready to get off. Chris managed to hear the word 'Danang' in an announcement and luckily we got off in the correct station. We didn't really want to be in Danang, it was the best place to get the train to and then get a mini bus to Hoi An. After a slight wildgoose chase, we found a nice little hotel near to the centre of the old town, had some breakfast and then went upstairs to catch up on the sleep we didn't get on the train.
It rains a lot here!
A lot!
We decided to go for a walk around the old town, there are many old buildings left here as it was largely neglected in the war. There are old assembly halls that the Chinese merchants used plus lots of pagodas and old houses. They are generally in good repair and some had fantstic details on the roofs. We also had a look at he Japanese covered bridge and had a walk along the river. Hoi An has quite a pleasant feel to it, not too many people trying to sell you things, except for the tailors. There are about 200 tailor shops in what is really only a town. They will make you whatever you like, including what ever you fancy from the most recent Next catalogue. If we were coming straight home I might have bought a new bag to fill up but as it is, I'm having a top & trousers made. Going for a fitting in a little while. As with most things in Vietnam it's pretty cheap. My outfit is going to cost 13 pounds. Not too shabby.
Today we have mostly been playing cards as there has been so much rain that the road looks like a river. It's been torrentially raining since we got up and appears to be easing off now so we'll probably go back into the old town this afternoon.
There are quite a lot of local speciality dishes in Hoi An. We're having Cau Lao for lunch, which is like the Pho that you get all over Vietnam but is made with water form a particular well and has less soupy bit and fatter noodles. It's nice!

Apparently Vietnam is a bit more communist than we gave them credit for and they don't like blogging! So we're not going to be able to view our blog for the rest of our time here as far as we can tell. Apparently they monitor the cyber cafes for subversive behaviour etc and several people are in prison for what they've written!
So we'll continue to post to our blog via flickr, but if you've got any comments or questions you'll need to email us rather than comment on the blog.

A bit more diving.

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Originally uploaded by theslaad.

Hooray! Chris is clever and passed his Open Water Course today. Yay! (Or more correctly - AWESOME!)

We're catching a night train tonight and then will be in the pretty old town of Hoi An. Hopefully it won't be a place where they ban blogspot - we're still not able to read our blog & comments or the Live from Norwich one whilst in Nha Trang!

Cheery-bye!

PS - how coincidental that we did our diving with Rainbow dive school!

Dive School

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Originally uploaded by theslaad.

Slightly hungover from our bucket escapades we made the long journey across the road to the Rainbow Dive Centre to begin our Open Water Course(OWC). For those that don't know, it's a 4 day course which once completed enables you to go diving anywhere in the world down to 18 metres.
Luckily it was a pretty easy start. We sat in a nice classroom and watched "awesome" PADI instruction videos. They were awesome simply because they are the most American thing you could possibly watch, with people high5ing every time they do something right. Very cheesy! (Chris now high 5s on a regualr basis!) (That's not true)
After the videos we filled in a few quizes and then talked it all through with our very nice instructor - Vickie.
The afternoon was our first pool session. We learnt how to set up our equipment and take it all apart again and then made our way over to an ex-navy pool. They use it because conveniently the deep end is very deep - 4m.
First of all we had to prove we were confident swimmers and swam 200m and then trod water for 10mins. Then it was time to get stuck in! Wet suits, fins (not flippers or you owe Vickie a beer), masks & snorkles on and into the pool. Once we had our BCDs and tanks on we started practising the skills. A lot of the skills we learnt are 'just in case' kind of skills so we began by learning how to empty our mask of water whilst under water, how to clear our regulators and a few other things. So far so good. We were in the pool for a few hours practising various things and then went for a little swim in the deep end! Chris did well with this, managing to equalise and be quite comfortable except for buoyancy control issues. I had trouble equalising my ears - the air you breathe is so dry I couldn't swallow to clear them and got a bit stressed. They started hurting a lot so we ended the day there.
Day 2 was another morning of classroom stuff and then back to pool in the afternoon. After a scary giant step into the deep end we tried again to dive down. Vickie & I both had problems with our ears again so we went shallower to practise the skills. It was at this point that I was starting to think it probably wasn't for me. I find the whole surrounded by water thing a bit claustrophobic and decided to call it a day, so I'll hand over to Chris..

Er... We did a load more skills, practicing buoyancy control and emergency ascents etc. All went OK really. Jen was very brave to go as far with it as she did, but it was probably about the right time to call it a day.
Came back from the pool a little earlier than planned and did our exams. Passed them! Yay! No more classroom stuff to do, just 4 dives in the sea.

Early night that night, then we got up early this morning to go out on the boat. Jen was a snork, while I went for my first deep(ish) sea dive. No skills for the first dive, I just followed Vix around for half an hour or so at 10-12metres down, checking how much air I had left all the while. It was great. Snorkling's pretty cool, but with SCUBA you get so much closer to all the corals and fish. We saw a stonefish hiding on the bottom, a nice trumpetfish, and a whole load of Nemo type anenome fish guarding their nest. It all went pretty well. I didn't hit the bottom or float up and away or anything.
Back to the boat and along to our second site. Back in the water and down to 12m again, but this time we had to practice things like taking the regulator out and stuff. I had a bit of a problem clearing the water out of my mask having had to take it off and put it back on again, but I got over it and we went for a swim again. Unfortunately clouds had come over and the water wasn't very clear, but it was still fun.

2 more dives tomorrow and assuming it goes OK I'll be a PADI certified Open Water diver - Awesome! Jen will still be a snork, but she's happier that way.

Chris' birthday - Part 2

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Originally uploaded by theslaad.

I shall continue staright from where we last left you!
Chris' hair has been getting a little on the long side and quite frankly he needed a haircut, so what better time than your birthday to spruce yourself up a bit and get a quick short back & sides? We'd noticed a few barbers working on the streets as we'd been walking around town and passed a cheerful looking guy on our way for Chris' birthday curry. 'You wan' haircut?' he shouted as he caught us looking. 'Yeah, I want a haircut'. It was a great hair cut too - very thorough and precise, including a slightly nervous straight razor moment. Everyday as we walk past, the barber gives us a big smile and checks Chris' hair. Very Cool (oh and cheap - less than a quid).

We had a fairly decent Indian curry for our dinner and then proceeded to one of the bars we'd been given a flier for previously. These fliers had all been advertising Vietnamese cocktail buckets - we had to try them! They were about 60p for a large plastic jam jar of Long Island Iced Tea. Quite strong and just about drinkable (we managed a few). We later found out that because Vietnamese vodka is cheaper than the Coke they can make them very strong for cheaper than if they were weak. We had a good time chatting to a couple of Kiwi girls, an Argentinian girl with 1 kidney, and a Slovenian couple. We stumbled home late to find our hotel shuttered, we panicked slightly as a wee was needed pretty badly and make enough noise for the night porter to let us in. This noise making may have invovled a door bell but we can't really remember! Just to add to how drunk you think we were - when we got into our room we thought the power was out but in actual fact we'd simply hit the mains power switch instead of the light switch on our way in!

Happy Birthday to me!

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Originally uploaded by theslaad.

Hello all!

It's a Chris blog today, 'cos it's my birthday.

Er... since we blogged last we've eaten, played cards, watched Cartoon Network, slept, got up and gone snorkling. The snorkling was pretty good actually. Didn't choose a great day for it, 'cos the sun kept going in, and you really want bright sunlight to penetrate the murky depths. Saw lots of fish though. I spent a good few minutes chasing a clown triggerfish around. He was a lovely little fella. Saw some nice long trumpetfish as well. They're Jen's favourites, apparently. There were loads of jellyfish around, but they were tiny little ones that don't sting really. We had full wetsuits on to protect us from them and the sun anyway.
So afterwards, we signed up for the 4 day PADI Open Water course. Jen's a bit scared, but I'm sure it'll be OK. She'll get to see loads of nice fishes and not drown or anything like that. Gonna go for a curry in a minute, then maybe some happy hour cocktails... who knows?


PS. For some reason we're having trouble getting to see our blog (or the live from Norwich one). Probably some firewall thing in this internet cafe, but it does mean that we can't read or post comments at the moment. Keep posting though, and we'll read them at some point.

Evil Jellyfish.

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Originally uploaded by theslaad.

After our day of exploring on the scooter we had 2 more days of relaxing by our pool. We thought that it would be a good idea to have a dip in the sea since we were so close. Bad idea!
As we went in Chris spotted a jellyfish! 'Oh no, quick, get out' we thought, but they were everywhere! A new experience to add to our list then - being stung by a jellyfish. Not too bad, hurts like anything for a few hours and then mostly felt ok. We checked with an Aussie guy who we thought might know a bit more about it than us and he didn't seem worried, so neither were we! Hurt our feet though!
We went back down onto the beach to watch the sun set and noticed loads of them along the sand where the tide had gone out - evil meanies!

Had another nice mornning by the pool beofre getting our afternoon bus to Nha Trang.

We haven't had much luck with getting trains as yet which had been our plan whilst in Vietnam - haven't quite been going to the correct places. So we got on another stinky bus to take us to Nha Trang. (Vietnamese people are similar to the Chinese in their lack of respect for other peoples personal space! They put their seats back as far as they go, suck on rambutans and smoke, also if you're lucky, they phlegm a lot!)
In our guide books it describes Nha Trang as a bit of a party place which is why we decided to go to Mui Ne instead, but it's on the way to where we're headed so we thought we'd have a look. It's also got a train station - yay!

We arrived in the early evening and experinced Nha Trang in full swing. There were people leafleting us constantly to get us to their bar. Happy Hours all evening and many many bars serving cocktails & shooters. Hmm not too sure about Nha Trang.
However, we discovered almost as many dive tour operators as bars, all offering snorkling trips which is what we thought we'd do here. They also offer very cheap diving. We can take our Open Water course for $225 each. We think this is about half the price of doing it in Thailand or Oz. So we're quite tempted and think that we'll go snorkling tomorrow & then start our 4 day course the next day.

Today we looked at the Nha Trang sites. In the blazing sun we walked to a local photographer's studio. He has amazing black & white photos of Vietnam. Then we strolled to the Long Son Pagoda. They have a 24 metre high white buddha which was built in 1963 to commemorate the monks who killed themselves in protest at the start of the war - I think this is what got the Americans involved (?). It was weird to see the swastica symbol everywhere too, but in reverse we think.

We are staying in our cheapest hotel yet here - $9 a night. Nice place though - big room with a balcony!

We didn't crash - not even close!

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Originally uploaded by theslaad.

Check us out on our suntan scooter!
Mui Ne beach resort is surrounded by huge sand dunes, so we thought we better get our lazy arses up off our sun loungers and go and see the natural sites. We hired our scooter fpr the day for $6 - the guy took $1 deposit and told us to bring it back when we felt like ít! No need for technicalities like driving licenses or insurance documents. With a quick lesson (keep it in 4th gear) he just took the dollar and let us go!
Unfortunately our malaria tablets made me a bit sick this morning so we hung around the hotel room a bit and then went out to find some lunch.
Scooted about 8km down the road into the resort centre where we found a nice BBQ place. Fish cubes, scallops & thin strips of meat to cook at your own table - 6 sauces to dip it all in. Yum Yum Yum.
The sun is extremely strong here and with Chris' bit of sun burn we thought it best to wait until later in the afternoon before we set off on our sand dune exploring adventure.
The first set of dunes we came to were the red dunes. We were a bit worried we might not find them as all the tourist maps you see are only really telling what there is to see rather than exactly where it is, but we needn't have worried. As we rode up about 10 kids with plastic sheets for sand sledging came running after us! "You want to slide? You slide with me!" We tried to tell them we had just come for a look but several of them followed us for a while, asking us our names etc. The dunes were pretty impressive, but there were more to see further along the road.
The next set of dunes were about 20km away. It involved a bit more navigation but when we looked lost local people pointed us in the right direction! We didn't go as close to the white dunes as it involved going along a very stony dirt track - not quite stable enough on a scooter with 2 people. It still looked good though, with a lake infront of the dunes.
On our way back to Mui Ne we stopped at a 'petrol station' who had given us directions on the way. It was a bizarre experience. The attendant had to hand pump the fuel into a measuring vat before he hose piped it into the scooter. It was a family affair, with a woman and her baby and 2 little girls coming to watch!
We carried on back to Mui Ne. The drive wasn't too bad, just a few herds of cows to negotiate on the way and some slightly scary trucks coming up behind us beeping.

It took Chris several days to persuade me that getting a scooter was a good idea! It felt quite safe most of the time and we realised that beeping is quite useful when no one has wing mirrors or looks around.

We had some great dinner in town when we got back - they barbequed a huge fish for us with rice and salad for 85000 dong (about 3 quid!).

Mui Ne Beach resort

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Originally uploaded by theslaad.

Sun. Sand. Swimming Pool. Suncream. Sunburn. Mosquito net. Lizards. Blue Lagoons. Relaxing. Reading. Cards. Snoozing. HBO. Fish. Scooters. Dunes. Relaxing again. Splish Splash. $16 a night. Cheap food. Cheap Beer. Wish you were here!

Ho Chi Min City

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Originally uploaded by theslaad.

Our hotel is in a very backpacker oriented part of the city so on the first afternoon we had a wander around the block and then thought we'd up date you with tales from Phnom Penh. There are lots of restaurants round here catering to lots of tastes but we wanted Vietnamese for our first dinner here and ended up in a small restaurant called Kim's Cafe! The food was lovelly - I had grilled fish in fish sauce and Chris had the ubiquitous lemon chicken! Delicious & very cheap.

We bought a knock off copy of Lonely Planet Vietnam when we were in Phnom Penh to supplement our 3 country Footprint guide. The pages are a bit faded but it works! It's got some walks in it that it suggests so we decided to take the HCMC walk on Thursday (12th).
It led us past some good places that we may or may not have gone to otherwise, namely:
The Ben Thanh Market - we went to some pretty harrassing markets in China, but this one was great! As we walked in some ladies on a t-shirt stall started talking to us, we said our very practised 'no thank you' with a shake of the head, but they were persistent & very cheeky. I had a painted set of chopsticks in my bag which they reckoned they just wanted to look at and I didn't have to buy anything. The lady started chatting to me whilst behind my back Chris was being stolen in to the shop and the next thing I knew he was negotiating a price on a t-shirt! The ladies were very funny and knew they were being cheeky - much more fun that way!

Tran Nguyen Hai statue - in the middle of a roundabout is a guy on a horse - don't know who he is but he looked nice!

Fine Arts Musuem - very quiet place with just a few visitors. Some interesting photography displays, we think there had just been a competition.

Centre of town - there are quite a few colonial buildings here including the Municipal Theatre, Rex Hotel & Hotel de ville. All quite pleasant and tasteful.

Musuem of HCMC - Again pretty quiet place with a few interesting exhibits, including a plane in the grounds (which I'm told is interesting!).

At this point in the tour it was getting into the afternoon and we needed some lunch. Not very easy to find - even with 2 guidebooks! We walked up and down several streets looking for anywhere to eat and eventually came across a little Pho place. We ordered Pho Bo (beef and noodles in lots of stock with beansprouts) and it was quite yummy.

As it was fairly late we cut the tour down a bit and finished off by visiting the Jade Emperor Pagoda. It was quite a weird place - lots of imposing colourful statues and many people praying.

Tired and with very sore feet for a Jen we walked home. The traffic had been quite bad during the day but not as bad as in rush hour! The roads here are full of scooters and quite a few more cars than in Cambodia. They have a few pedestrian crossings but it's fairly optional to stop at them, in the same way that it's optional to stop at red lights and to stay on your own side of the road! You have to be very brave and just cross the road even though there are things coming (we tend to wait for it to be just scooters). In theory if you go quite steadily and straight everything will go round you. It's worked so far! At a particularly busy bit we hesitated for a while, but then a monk came to cross so we just went with him - figured we'd be pretty safe!

Today (13th) we visited the War Remnants Museum (or the Musuem of American & Chinese war crimes). It had been on the tour from yesterday as somewhere worth going to and seemed like it would be quite interesting. It had some great and disturbing photos and disgusting pickled deformed embryos, a few weapons and a tiger cage. It was a bit like Tuol Sleng in Phnom Penh though in the way that it didn't really give you any information - maybe events are still too close in history.

Again, we had a bit of trouble finding a place for lunch. We were feeling adventurous and went into somewhere full of locals having hotpot. We sat down in there but the menu was entirely in Vietnamese. No worries we thought - we've got a phrase book & 2 guidebooks! Hmm...we'll just have a beer & a water! They thought we were pretty funny and brought us this delicious giant slightly spicy prawn cracker.
We eventually had a bit of lunch in a shopping mall foodcourt and then took a break from sight seeing and had a few games of ten pin bowling!

We just came from the park where we were going to sit in the shade (it's been very hot & muggy today) and play cards. Instead we talked to a local guy who is studying English and asked if he could practice with us. We chatted for about an hour about all sorts of things, a very nice guy who is also studying computer programming and Japansese at uni.

We get a bus to the beach tomorrow - Mui Ne. Should be good!

Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Min City

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Originally uploaded by theslaad.

Cambodia was a good country to visit. Far poorer than anywhere we've been before or will go on this trip. It had a lot of beggars but also lots of people who were trying to make their own way. The scenery was great - lots of lush vegetation and houses on stilts, and of course the Angkor complex. When we visited Angkor a lady from the WWF interviewed us about a new nature reserve they are opening, I think if it had been open we would have spent a few more days there but as it was it seemed we'd seen what we came to see and so got another 'limousine' bus to Vietnam.

During the 6 hour trip we had lovely sunny weather, a very easy immigration process and a comfy seat - a breeze! The lovely weather continued until about 5 minutes before the bus stopped at which time the heavens opened and a truly stupid amount of rain fell out of the sky!
This is the first time we've winged the accomodation, waiting until we arrived to find somewhere so all the taxi drivers asking us where we wanted to go had to wait a while until we decided. The places were all within easy walking(swimming) distance but we were already very wet and got a taxi to Nga Hoang (recomended in our Lonely Planet).

We've done well with all our rooms so far on the trip - never spending more than 7 pounds between us for the night, except for one night when we paid 10 for the last room. Luckily the Nga Hoang had available rooms and we chose a double with a/c & fridge for $12 a night. Splendid.

The rain finally died down after we'd been in the hotel for a few minutes and we ventured out for some lunch. HCMC looks like it will be good, lots to do and lots to eat!

Happy Birthday Jen day!

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Originally uploaded by theslaad.

It's always a bit weird being somewhere different on your birthday, it didn't feel a lot like a birthday but we had a good day...

I'd read in our guidebook about a non-profit restaurant (called Friends) that is run by street kids being trained in the hospitaltiy industry, the review said it was clean and the food was good. I wanted to go their for my b-day lunch so go there we did!
It was fantastic! Probably the best meal we've had all trip. The menu is tapas style so you can order lots of small dishes. We had - houmus on crispy wontons, chicken Khmer curry, fish with salsa verde, prawn in crispy wonton parcels, pork&beef honey meatballs, chilli beef pastry pockets and some rice & french bread.
It was so yummy! The teenagers serving us were brilliant too, they did everything you'd expect from a good/posh restaurant - there were teachers on hand but they didn't seem to need them. It was a good start to the day.

Coming to Cambodia, you can't really ignore the terrible war torn history that the country has had and it seemed like the right thing to do to visit Tuol Sleng - the Genocide Museum. They have kept the high school were Pol Pot & his cronies kept thousands of people prisoner and have turned it into the museum. It's full of haunting mugshots of the victims, alongside other photo exhibitions that tell the stories of individuals involved on both sides of the prison. We didn't know much about the Khmer Rouge before we went, and I'm not sure we know that much more now but it was worth a visit to realise the attrocity. We didn't really fancy the killing fields though- too depressing.

We visited the Royal Palace after the museum. It was quite nice, the usual kinds of temples and shoe taking off! Had some very pretty bits and some quite dowdy bits - far less brash than Bangkok.

It seemed that it must be time for a cocktail so we went back to the main bar street and played some cards while I sipped a gin fizz! Had a quick look on the internet for birthday greetings - Thank you!
Seemed like time for a 2nd cocktail - the food looked ok in the Cantina bar so we had a bit of mexican food while I drank my Cosmopolitan!

We had been tempted to go back to Friends for dinner but didn't know what we'd have as we'd eaten half the menu for lunch, but we did decide to go there for pudding (& 3rd cocktail!) What a good decision - Chris had a lovely crepe with choc sauce & ice cream, and I had pineapple in toffee sauce with icecream, all washed down with frozen lime daquiris.

Excellent!

Siem Reap to Phnom Penh.

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Originally uploaded by theslaad.

We got up nice and early to get in breakfast before catching our 'limousine bus' to Phnom Penh. After waiting around for about half an hour past the time they were supposed to come and pick us up, this tiny run down minibus turned up! We giggled nervously, knowing our legs would be too long to fit behind the seats and wondering if we would be in that bus for the whole 6 hour journey! The guys on the bus obviously saw the scared looks on our faces and told us it was ok - they were taking us to the bus station - phew!

The limousine bus was an ordinary coach, not too shabby! They gave us a box with 2 pastries in, some water and a refreshing wipe - and we settled in for our journey. The roads are a lot less scary form up in a bus - things tend to get out of your way more.

We are quickly realising that visiting countries that have a rainy season at the end of that season doesn't mean that it won't rain! It rained steadily for the whole of our journey!
We arrived safely in Phnom Penh and despite warnings from the guy at our last guesthouse, there was a little bus waiting to pick us up. It was a real relief since the throngs of tuktuk drivers wanted to know where we were going, pushing and trying to vie for our business.

Our hotel was nice enough for $13 a night, and in a convenient part of the city. PP didn't really feel that much like a city at first though, more of a big town - and certainly not a capital. A far cry from Beijing or Bangkok in size and traffic. There were very few cars on the roads, whole families choosing instead to ride on one scooter. The roads were full of bikes & tuktuks.

We looked at our guidebook, which showed the main bar & restaurant street being just a couple of streets from our hotel, and opposite the river.
We mostly spent the evening going to a couple of touristy/expat bars and treated ourselves to some western food in the Frog & Parrot! Chris had a particulary good steak for less than 3 quid and I had a great bowl of chili.

While we were out it started throwing it down again so we got a tuktuk back to the hotel. We keep paying a bit too much for our tuktuks! A notice in the bar said if you wanted to buy a waitress a drink give them $1 as they only get $2 wages a day. We paid our tuktuk driver $2 to take us 3 roads! But I think he probably needs it more than we do - we're quite happy to pay 1 pound to get back to our hotel in the rain in the dark!

Cambodia - Siem Reap

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Originally uploaded by theslaad.

Having decided that the border crossing all looked like a bit too much hassle, we booked a cheap flight from Bangkok to Phonm Penh and arrived on the afternoon of 6th October. We had booked some accomodation in advance and decided to get a taxi for the 5 hour drive from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap ($50).
The ride was scary! The roads are a lot better than they used to be but it still isn't great tarmac. The vehicles tend to stay in the middle of the road until there's something coming at which point they get over at the last possible moment! There are also quite a lot of large pot holes to avoid, cyclists & pedastrians to manouver around and cattle & dogs to steer clear of!
The cattle are working animals here and we couldn't quite believe it when we saw several carts being pulled along the side of the road by pairs of cattle (so skinny that you can count their ribs).
We had our most socially awkward moment of the trip so far when we stopped for something to eat a few hours into our trip. The driver sat with us but we assumed we'd all order our own food so Chris & I ordered 2 dishes and rice. The driver spoke in Cambodian to the waiter and all was good. When our food came the driver moved it towards us and after we took some, helped himself! Some other food came but none of that really got eaten! At the end of the meal we paid. Not really sure what should have happened but it was okay!

We arrived at our Guesthouse in Siem Reap at around half past 9 after driving through some torrential rain. A man and a lady took our bags in for us and once in our room the man said - 'Hi, I'm Booni and if you want to go to the Temple tommorow I'll be your driver'. His English seemed quite good so we said yes please and arranged to meet him at 5am the following morning. A quick drink and then straight to bed!

Getting up when it's still dark just isn't very natural, but I doubt we'll ever come back here so we wanted to see the sun rise over Angkor Wat. We met Mr.Bunny and rode our TukTuk to Angkor Wat.
Quite a few other people had the same idea but that was the only time during the day that it felt busy.
Unfortunately it was a bit cloudy to see a good sun rise so we waited until it got light and then got back in our fab tuktuk to see where Mr.Bunny would take us next!

We went to the Bayon. It was incredible! You look up at the towers and gradually notice all the heads looking at you, welcoming you to the temple. It is all quite erroded as you would expect but it's still possible to see a lot of the carvings. It must have been so amazing when it was first built.

We spent the day looking around the different parts of the Angkor complex. It was truly stunning in a lot of places - particularly the Bayon and Angkor Wat.
There is one temple where lots of Banyan trees have broken the walls - it looks as thought he temple is growing out of the jungle.

At Angkor Wat we spent a lot of time looking at the bas reliefs. It's the longest collection in the world and tells the stories of Vishnu, Sita
and other stories of HIndu origin. Most importantly (for boys)- it show the churning of the sea by the gods & demons to make ambrosia and create the apsaras (pretty ladies who make your stay in heaven quite pleasurable!).

We were very pleased that we took a tuktuk around the area - it's too spread out to be able to walk around, and it meant that Mr. Bunny told us interesting things about the temples and was able to show us the head in the photo which you wouldn't notice if you just drove through the gate in a taxi.

We spent the afternoon and evening relaxing in our lovelly $12 a night guesthouse and are spending the day today taking it easy before our bus ride back to Phnom Phenh tomorrow.

PS.
As we've been travelling one of the worst things we've seen has been the begging children. It's heart breaking to be asked for money by a child too young to be in my class. Quite often they are selling things but you know that there's a fagan style adult waiting around the corner to take the money. Particularly in China - the children we saw had probably been sold by their parents to these people.
We ve mostly avoidd buying anything or giving money for this reason, but did give a lad $5 yesterday when he pounced on us to guide us through one of the temples. He told us he needed the money for school and did we realise how poor he was, but that he was learning 3 languages so had to pay his teacher! How can you refuse?

So, we were thinking, as it's both Chris & my birthdays soon, if you would normally buy us a present, perhaps you would think about giving the money to a children's charity that works in SE Asia or China. It would help us to see the children and know that we are helping in a small way. Thanks xx

Bangkok

IMGP1211
Originally uploaded by theslaad.

Help!
We're drowning in hippies..we can't breathe through the incense or see past all the dreadlocks - we must have reached the Khaosan road!

Wow - what a difference from China. The past 3 weeks, the only western people we've seen have been our group plus a few French & Dutch people at the odd tourist spot. We were so unusual we got starred at a lot and sometimes even photographed. Here, we are one of hundreds of white people looking to have a good time.

We fully expected to hate the Khaosan road but it's popular for a reason and we actually quite like it! You can switch off for a while. Most people speak English, there are nice stalls to buy Thai fishermans trousers (Jen is currently sporting a nice dark green pair!) and the restaurants all have English menus. In all its chaotic activity it's surprisingly relaxing to be here.

Our hotel room is fine for the 7 pounds we're spending on it a night and we've been splashing out a bit on dinners - 2 pounds each for a curry with rice and a drink!
It's so cheap here - you can see why so many people just spend ages hanging around before going to the beach.

Yesterday (4th October) we explored for a bit and then went to walk up the Golden Mount. It's not very easy to get around Bangkok and we wanted to see if we could go to the cinema so we caught a river taxi. Definetly the best way to travel here - no touts, not many car fumes and it's quick. Luckily we had a very helpful lady sitting next to us who told us which stop we needed and told the ticket guy what we wanted. It's unfortunate though that after just a few weeks of travelling we were a bit suspicious of her...what might she be trying to sell us?
Today we visited a huge monastary called Wat Pho. It was interesting to look around but we weren't very impressed by the state of the place. Needs a good clean & repaint! There was an amazingly large reclining gold Buddha though with mother of pearl feet - very impressive.
It was our plan to go to the Grand Palace after we'd looked around the Wat but we weren't really sure if it was open or if we could go in with t-shirts and sandals on so we walked back home instead.

Being in Bangkok has enabled us to discover another 2 rules of travelling:
1. Don't trust Tuk Tuk drivers. (they kept telling us places were closed so that they could take us further afield)
2. If someone asks you where you're from then they are trying to sell you something!

It's raining a lot here at the moment!

Catching a flight to Cambodia tomorrow so lots more to report soon!

Impressions of China

Bests and worsts in no particular order...

Best stuff:

Yangshuo Scenery
Great Wall
Rice Terrace Scenery
Food (mostly)
Beer on street corners
White water rafting!

Worst Stuff:

Hole in the floor toilets
Constant smog
Food (occasionally)
Traffic and road crossing
Climbing lots of steps
Pissing around trying to get to the top of Jinmao tower


Take it or leave it:

Overnight trains

Hong Kong

Hong Kong apparently still counts as a different country - Qimin had to come in the Foreigners queue with us! She needs a visa to enter, where as we wouldn't have done if we had just been visiting without going to the rest of China. It was China's national day - a public holiday,
customs at the train station was as in an airport, it took a little while but then we were on the nice clean, fast, a/c KCR into Hong Kong.

Our hotel was in Kowloon - not so different in feel to mainland China as we had expected Hong Kong to feel. Chris & I decided to go for a shop. Ali had been using a cool Polaroid camera all holiday and it had made me want one (Chris has our camera on him most of the time - so it will be nice to have my own photos).
We encountered a huge demonstration - apparently there has been organ harvesting going on in concentration stlye camps. It was interesting talking to Qimin later on about it - she giggled and didn't believe it was true until we questioned her and she had to think about it. China's censorship is scary - but Qimin thinks that the country wouldn't work without it as there are so many people.

We were all looking forward to our final meal together and got a bit dressed up for the occasion (as much as people living out of backpacks can get dressed up for anything!). Qimin took us to the dodgiest looking place yet! There weren't really any walls just strips of plastic and the tables looked like they hadn't been cleaned all day. We sat down sceptically. The food was tasty and cheap - we really should have learnt to trust Qimin by now, but it was hard sometimes as she took us places with little consultation. I think we all would have happily paid a bit more for our dinner since it was the final night - but didn't need to.

As it was National Day there were fireworks to watch at the harbour. Unfortunately half of Hong Kong had been waiting since lunch time and no more people were allowed through by the time we got there. We could just about see from where we were - it was an extravagant display! There were almost 1/2 million people around the harbour watching them for free!
Qimin had met up with her local friend and we asked to be taken to an inexpensive bar. We were taken to a sports bar called Friar Tucks and bought a beer each for 50 HKD - about the same as we were paying in the posh places in Shanghai. Most of the group don't go to places like that at home and we weren't best pleased so drank up and went back to the street near to where we'd had dinner - it all looked pretty cheap!
All of us except Graham & Patrick sat and had some beers at a restaurant table outside, where we could watch the world go by and only pay 10 HKD. It was sad to think that it was our last night together. Chris & I feel as though we've made some good friends and it was a shame to say good bye.

Whilst we were sad to say good-bye the next day was one of our best. We were free to do things at our own pace, not having to be back at any particular time. We left the hotel at 10am and didn't get back until around 10pm!
We rode the star ferry across to Hong Kong island and then got the funicular tram up to 'the peak' of Victoria Peak. Great views across the harbour of all the skyscrapers.
We treated ourselves to a seafood lunch (thanks to Chris' Mum). It was delicious - shrimp, Mahi Mahi and lobster. Yum Yum Yum!
We decided to go to the Zoological & Botanical gardens and were really pleased with our decision. It was completely free and there were lots of animals to see - in particular some big orangutans.
We had a bit of a look around some shops - we really noticed the difference between Hong Kong and mainland China here. Lots of designer shops, huge adverts for things we can't afford!
Feeling a bit tired we found another park to sit in and played some cards.

We had picked up a leaflet about a lantern festival and so made sure that we stayed on the island until it got dark. We finally found me a polaroid camera on the way to Victoria Park. I love my new toy!
The lanterns were beautiful and slightly strange in places. The red sphere lanterns that you see in Chinese restaurants looked amazing all hanging together. There was also a set of tall 'dancing' lanterns which moved up and down to music - kinda cool. Again, it was all free!

We wanted to get back across to Kowloon for the light show so took the clean a/c underground. Very swift. This time we could get to the harbour edge and had a brilliant view of the lights on the skyscrapers and the bonus fireworks that they set off because it was the national holiday.
We got ourselves some relatively cheap Chinese food for dinner and then went home to bed!

Our trip to the airport was easy - caught a bus from down the road which took us all the way to departures for a mere 100 HKD for 2(6.50 ish). We then enjoyed the very western nature of the airport.
Don't tell anyone, but we had Burger King and cookies form Millies!!

Cathay Pacific were great to fly with - no queues and good food.

The group's first calamity!

We had quite a lot of spare time in Guilin beofre our train left at 8pm. We got a chinese meal together and then went to the supermarket to get train supplies (water, crackers, biscuits, pot noodle, crisps, breakfast rolls - all that good healthy stuff). A few of us then went to the internet cafe to use up the last hour - Qimin had asked us to be back at the train station by half past 6.
Chris, me & Kate were sat together and decided to leave at around 6:15 but Ali and Paul hadn't quite finished so we said we'd get a taxi for 3 and they could get one for 2 as we wouldn't all have fitted in one taxi anyway.

The 3 of us waited for a while but all the taxis coming past were full so we decided to walk the 20 minutes back to the station. We were a few minutes late but collected our bags from the luggage room and got our train tickets in plenty of time.

Then we waited...and waited. Where were Ali & Paul? Even if they'd decided to wait for a taxi surely they'd be here by now?

We waited a bit longer. No one had their mobile number and we mostly didn't have phones with us.
We were all getting pretty worried as time to board the train got nearer. At around 7:15 Qimin told us all to go into the station and get on the train, she would wait as long as she could and then leave their tickets in the luggage room if they didn't show.

Members of the group started to et a bit panicky, looking round every 2 seconds to check we were all together! We left it as long as we could and then boarded the train without them. Ali & Paul were great members of the group, lots of fun and we really didn't want to leave without them.
A few minutes before the train was due to leave they boarded. Hooray!

They had been completely ripped off by taxis. Qimin had written "Railway Station" on slips of paper for us to get taxis. The taxi they had took them to the wrong station - even though Paul kept telling her it was the wrong way. Then they had to get anoher taxi back into town and run for the train! Very stressful - we'd had a pretty smooth time of it unti then!

But we all managed to be on the last train of our trip. It was the nicest yet. We played Mahjong in the beer car, I mean dining car until 1am and then slept our way across the country.

The Beautiful Lonji Rice Terraces

We travelled from our guesthouse to Guilin by bus before changing to a smaller public bus for the trip to the bottom of the lonji area. We then got another public bus for the ride up into the hills (mountains?). Driving up steep roads with sheer drops to your sides is scary at the best of times, but in China it just seemed that extra bit frightening! Not sure the driver always looked where he was going. Also, whilst beeping your way around the corner is quite a good plan, it doesnt really help if you don't slow down at all!

But as has luckily been the case so far, we got to our destination safe and sound!

You have to buy a ticket to enter the area of Lonji. It is the most extensive area of rice paddies in China and also home to some minority tribal groups. One of these groups has been awarded the record for the longest group hair (or something like that!). The women all have extraordinarily long hair which they wear in a kind of coil around their head. If you pay them 4 yuan they'll get it out for you! And maybe even wash it in a waterfall. We decided against that little bit of weirdness. There was a very fine line whilst we staying there between supporting the local people making a living from tourism and exploiting them.
Some people (not in our group) rode up the terraces in a sedan chair! Quite sickening, or paying someone a decent wage? Discuss.

Anyho, the buses can only go so far. So we walked the rest of the way up to our guesthouse. The rice terraces looked amazing. Definietly on a par with the Great Wall for sheer scale and beauty. They were created around 600 years ago at the same time as the Great Wall to help to feed the growing population and they take your breath away ( not just becasue they're quite steep).

Our guesthouse was simple, clean and had a stunning view. We were all hot and hungry, so after a hearty lunch our local guide showed us the way to a pool so that we could dip our toes!
The guide was great! His name was Farmer Tang. He was so sweet and funny, really good natured - he brought us a bag of mandarins from his farm to share. He was the only guide that we all put extra in for his tip! A really nice guy! Check out the photos of the walk - he's the short Chinese one!!

It was a quiet evening - not much to do around those parts and we had to get up early the next morning so that we could make an early start on the 5 hour walk to the next guesthouse before the heat set in .
Not everyone decided to do the long wwalk. Whilst the up bits are quite exhausting, they're okay but the downward slopes were often a bit too tricky for Jen - I didn't want to lose my footing and end up rolling down the steps. Some other people were ill so 6 of us climbed back down to the buses to drive to the guesthouse and 7 people walked.
Those of us that took the bus actually ended up with a harder climb in the end as we were back at the bottom again!
The group that did the long walk enjoyed the fantastic scenery and lots of informative and not so informative comments from Farmer Tang.

We all met up again at lunch time at our new guesthouse. That afternoon was spent snoozing and relaxing.
Chris & I learnt how to play Mahjong. It's cool.
We were treated to a show by some women who live in the area. We were all a bit sceptical and nervous about joining in at first but it turned out to be hillarious! They were quite am - dram about it - geting their pompoms stuck in each others pompoms and giggling! They made us join in. One dance was in pairs going under everyones arched arms in turn untill they decided to catch someone. That person happened to be Tom who was then blindfolded and had to find his bride in the circle. We all got out of the way so that he picked his girlfriend. They then had to try to get out of the circle - Rosie on Toms back! We think they're married in the Lonji area now!
We also did some bamboo pole dancing! Hopping in and out the poles as they tap them together on the floor!

It was a great area to be in after we'd spent so much time in the cities. The next day we left at midday so we took one final climb up to a view point to see the terraces in all their splendour and then climbed down to where the buses are for our ride back to Guilin for our last overnight train.

More adventures in the Chinese countryside.

The next day was another cycling day. It had been advertised on our itinerary as an all day cycle ride through the countryside...
Our ride started at our guesthouse. From there we went past some farms and down along side the river. It was a very calm and peaceful ride, a far cry from what it would have been like to cycle in Beijing! The scenery was spectacular - lime karst cliffs, paddy fields and the occasional water buffalo as we went along the dirt track road. We were headed for a place called Moon Hill, around 10km away.

(As we approached on our bikes ladies started running along side us talking and pointing to each other. It was quite disconcerting. Later we realised that these women follow you the whole way up, fanning you as required and trying to get you to buy a drink. They fluctuated between being very useful - cooling you down, and being very annoying and getting in the way. We had a lot of admiration for them though, climbing up and down all day.)

A lot of the local tour operators advertise Moon Hill as somewhere to go to go caving and swim in the pools after you've gone down the mud slide, but this wasn't on our schedule. Instead, when we got there we bought tickets to climb to the top. As you probably know, i'm quite a lot lazier than Chris, and a climb to the top a big hill isn't really my idea of a good time, but I was told it would be worth it so up we went. 850 steps! No real break between them - just straight up. Even the fit members of our group were sweating half their body weight in the mid 30 degree heat. But unfortunately, for pretty much our entire time in China, there has been a haze over the country. Initially in Beijing we thought it was pollution, but it was everywhere and hence the view from the top of the hill was pretty crappy, in fact the view from the bottom was better because you could see the moon shaped hole in the hill. Never mind!!

Later we cycled back into Yangshou. A bit hairy at times, going around roundabouts, but generally a nice days cycle ride.

We got a bus back to the inn that we were staying at further afield in Yangshou. This was one of our more basic accomodations. Our room was further out than everyone elses and backed on to a private farm. There were some very loud dogs for a lot of the first night.
Things that people found in their rooms included spiders with bodies the size of a tennis ball, a toad, cockroaches and we had a giant beetle which I mistook for a tortoise (a small tortoise!). It was quite hard to get to sleep there at first, not knowing what might be creeping over the mosquito net, but the 2nd night we were so tired from cycling that we slept well.